How to Write Not Just More, But Also Better Content with the Help of AI

You should demand more from your technology, human.

Specifically, you should ask your AI copy generator to do more for you than it currently is. Far more. Now, why would I say that?

State-of-the art AI models now make it possible to generate copy in natural language that is almost indistinguishable from human-generated text. That’s amazing, but also a little scary.

Why scary?

Well, because much like a small child, the most sophisticated AIs in the world can only generate the same quality output that they’ve been trained on. So if they’re trained, as the largest and qualitatively best Natural Language Processing model GPT3 has been; partially on toxic, racist, misogynistic language — they will sometimes come up with the same as their outputs.

Tay, anyone?

Fact-checking or understanding what reports and stories are true or false, is getting more and more difficult. Fake news, anyone?

“GPT-3 was able to generate “news articles” almost indistinguishable from human-made pieces. Judges barely achieved above-chance accuracy (52%) at correctly classifying GPT-3 texts.”

A college kid’s fake, AI-generated blog fooled tens of thousands and landed on the top of hacker news. Yeah, you can see how this could be a problem.

But that’s not the point, here. The point is that AI-generated marketing copy can help you write more content, way faster. Apart from the ethical and safe use of AI-generated content — which is a topic for another day — the problem is: is that content going to be truly good? And what do we even mean when we think about ‘truly good’ copy?

I think what we mean is: is that AI-generated copy going to be the stuff that helps us reach our goals?

And if it isn’t, how can we have our AI-generated copy-cake and eat it, too?

The obvious upside of AI copy generators: get more content, faster

At the same time as growing the risk of creating an unprecedented cesspool of garbage content on the internet, AI-generated content obviously has its (massive) upsides. Especially for well-meaning people who need and want to create more written content.

Marketers, content writers, bloggers — either in corporate environments or otherwise — all understand that in order to grow, they need to create more content.

To be able to connect with more people, so as to be able to help more people with whatever they have to offer. Simple, innocent, and even beautiful, one could say.

Yeah, I said it: most marketers, content creators and bloggers are honest, well-willing people!

Now, as you probably well know: creating content consistently can be a major hassle.

And that’s exactly what AI marketing content generator software helps us to do, more easily and much faster. Creating more stories, to reach more people, to be able to help more and to grow more.

And remember: it does so at such a high level that it’s almost impossible for humans to detect that it was a machine who created the copy they’re reading.

However;

What AI-generated content doesn’t necessarily do, is make us better writers.

And more copy, more stories, and more content don’t necessarily mean more goals achieved and more growth unlocked — at least not if the stories are low or of inconsistent quality.

The main problem with AI-generated copy for growth purposes

Check out some of the best and most sophisticated suites of AI copy generators out there today:

Copy.ai

AIWriter.com

Kafkai.com

ChatGPT

As you’ll see, most of these make it possible to either generate complete short and long-form blog articles based on a simple and short description. Or they will create all kinds of marketing content for you, like ads, social media captions, landing pages et cetera. Or they’ll do all of the above.

And they’ll help you do it super fast, with minimum effort.

The upside of this, of course, is that you as a copywriter, content creator or multiple hat marketer won’t have to stare at a blank page ever again. Nor will you have to wring yourself out over coming up with the first few words of your ad copy, blog post, Instagram captions, E-mail subject lines, YouTube video titles or what have you. In some cases the AI will even come up with an entire draft article for you.

Oh, of course, you have to edit the stuff. And this will make it better, and at least as good as anything you would have written on your own, only faster.

But what it fails to do is this:

This does not necessarily make your content better. It fails to make you a better writer. It fails to make you and your team create and share ever better stories for your brand.

And this is what you’re really looking for, isn’t it?

Not just a lot of content, not even a lot of content, really fast, and — with a little bit of human polishing — at the quality that you usually create content at. You need to keep improving your stories. Don’t you?

The world is changing. Your audience and their needs are changing, and so is what your competitors are doing. You need to keep improving yourself, and at the same time, you need to keep improving the stories you share.

And this is where your AI content generator is failing you.

Or, rather, where you are failing yourself, if you’re doubling down on using any of the content generation tools available. Except maybe this one, brand spanking new AI content generator, Storylab.ai, which promises you more content and stories, faster, as well as teaching you to be a better writer.

Now, why is it that AI-based copy generators don’t usually help us grow as writers? That lies in the ‘I’ part of the AI acronym.

The core problem with AI and AI-generated copy: ‘Intelligence’

As of the latest, GPT3-based AI copy generators, the core of the problem is this:

As smart as our current AI systems are, as much as they’re essentially self-learning and able to improve and learn to do new specific language tasks that they haven’t been previously trained on with human supervision;

Natural Language Processing AI models don’t truly understand what they’re doing. What they do have knowledge and understanding of is the way words relate to each other; and how to create acceptable, passable and correct language content on the basis of short and simple prompts. They don’t understand the world around them. And they don’t understand what they’re saying.

Like a hyper-talented but blind and paralyzed parrot, kind of.

This is a serious limitation in the sense that true intelligence needs feedback. Better stories and better storytelling need that feedback as well.

Improvement in and of itself — which is another word for ‘getting better’ — requires feedback, by definition.

The solution: use AI-generated content for speed, but focus on improving as a writer

You, human, are able to gauge, meaningfully analyze and understand the reactions of your intended audience to the stories you’re sharing. You are able to understand the underlying meaning of words, sentences; thoughts, feelings; needs, problems and solutions — and their connection to the social and physical reality that we live in. That you live in, and that your audience lives in.

And it’s that understanding that’s going to ultimately help you not only create more content, but more so: ever better content.

And that’s what’s gonna help you grow.

The solution to our growth-through-storytelling conundrum:

Write more, use AI-generated copy as writing prompts and to speed up your process — but make sure you continuously improve yourself as a writer as well.

Author bio:

Erwin Lima: What inspires Erwin is helping people, teams and brands to become the best version of themselves. Guiding them with curiosity, empathy, and Growth Storytelling.

Over the past 10+ years as a copywriter, author, consultant, and coach, he’s helped dozens of Brands, Teams, and individual human beings to grow their sense of motivation and focus, but also their reach, engagement, and revenue— through the power of their own story. You can find Erwin on LinkedIn and on his website.